Chilli exporters to the UK have lost chilli worth over Rwf100million in airport interceptions between July 2020 and March 2021 as authorities continue to block the products from entering the country without being subjected to testing in line with Covid-19 containment measures.

Information obtained by Rwanda Today, indicated that in the first three months of 2021 alone, Almond, one of the exporting companies, lost up to Rwf37million, while Veggie Fresh lost up to Rwf12million.

The exporters say that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs intercepts their products on grounds that they have a virus, only to be declared virus-free two weeks later but when their products have already got spoiled.

In an interview with Robert Rukundo, president of Rwanda horticulture ex porters association, he said nothing has changed since last year, that they continue to incur losses, despite taking the issue to a number of entities.

“We have been seriously hit since last year, we continue to incur losses because of these interceptions, some of our fellow exporters have since folded and left after losing all the money,” he said.

He said what is more disturbing is the fact that line authorities in Rwanda, despite knowing what is happening, have not treated this issue with the urgency it deserves, with only the exporters fighting for themselves, which has not yielded much. Dawson Rubanzacumu, one of the chilli exporters who has been affected since last year, shared that at one point he faced interceptions three times in one month, which almost bankrupted him.

At one point he got angry and told his clients that if they don’t engage their authority for him to get feedback, they will have to pay me for his spoiled goods, and that’s when they released his consignment after two weeks, which was too late and the products had already gone bad. Mr Rukundo says exporters to the UK have considerably reduced, leaving only those exporting to Germany and a few other European markets, noting that the impact has trickled down to farmers, who are stuck with chilli they can’t get market for.

“No one talks about our issue anymore, we wrote to the UK high commission in Rwanda to help us engage the authorities in the UK, they responded but didn’t give any tangible results” he said. NAEB did not respond to questions from Rwanda Today by press time, when asked how far the body is helping exporters overcome this problem.

Rukundo said DEFRA recently found a PVY virus in some of the intercepted chilli, a virus common in potatoes, which has turned the already precarious situation worse.

The Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority together with Trademark East Africa recently conducted a training of exporters in which they were educated about some of the viruses on the loose and how to deal with them.

As a response, the horticulture exporters association has intensified work with the exporters, to improve seeds, crop rotation, uprooting infected plants, as well as encouraging exporters to purchase the rapid test kits for the virus.